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Thursday, April 27, 2017

It has been so good to get back to the writing. My mind has been going in all directions and needs a little focus. Hope you enjoy this:

They sat down in a rather plain room. Utilitarian table and
chairs were surrounded by gray walls. Not what Ward had expected after the last
go round. Pat sat on one side of the
table and pointed to the chair opposite her.
Since there was no reason not to sit, Ward did as he was asked. On the
table there was a stack of manila folders each filled with papers. Slowly she
picked a folder from the pile and handed it to him without saying a word. It
was a test, everything they did here was a test, so he waited with folded arms
for instructions.

“I want you to read what is in the file,” she opened it for
him.

“That all,” Ward knew it wasn’t.

“For now,” and she smiled, “Yes.”

Three hours later he had read through about four of the
files. No words had been spoken. Each time he had finished she had just handed
him another folder. Each folder contained a mission or job that had been
completed by one of the government agencies that tried to enforce the laws of
the land. Some of the jobs had ended with what some would call a happy ending
and the perpetrator going to jail. Some, most, were still open case files. All
of them had to do with domestic violence and murder. None of them had been redacted, making the
details all the more personal and horrific. When he closed the fourth file Pat
finally spoke.

“Well,” and she leaned back in the chair.

“You picked these cases especially for me to read,” and she
nodded slightly, “I also know that you have collected all the information you
want to know.” When she said nothing Ward continued, “You wanted to know my
reactions to these cases especially because of my mother’s death, but as you
have seen, although I find these cases horrific, as anyone would, I will not
let it affect my judgement or my feelings.”

“Some of our agents are put on cases like these,” she looked
him straight in the eyes as she spoke, “We need to know that you can do the job
no matter what you read.”

“You’ve been reading my mind from the moment you talked with
me in the cafeteria.” He pushed the file back toward her, “I know I can. All I
need to know from you right now is whether or not you think I’m good enough to
continue in this program of yours?”

Sunday, April 16, 2017

“Yes,” and that was the last thing Jack said before they
walked up to their table.Ward and Bobby
busied themselves with their food.

“Good to see you here Jack,” Rowan spoke first but
didn’t even look at him.It didn’t
surprise Jack though.

“Good to see you too Rowan.Foods pretty good, gonna grab a bite first?”

“No, thanks we grabbed before we got here,” Rowan sat
down beside Bobby and Pat sat next to Ward without saying a word.To say that neither of the men noticed them
would be an understatement, but they tried very hard not too.

“Pat and Rowan I would like you to meet Ward and
Bobby,” Jack did what he knew they had wanted him to do.They were there for them.Even Jack had picked Ward and Bobby out to be
the most promising new recruits.They
would want to start on them as soon as possible and that would mean examining
those ghosts.

“Nice to meet you,” Bobby stuck out his hand toward
Rowan and then Pat.

“Nice to meet you too,” Rowan zeroed in on Bobby as
Pat sat quietly next to Ward.“I would
like to interview you after you finish you meal here if that’s okay with you.”

“I’m done,” and Bobby pushed the tray away from him.

“Then let’s get started,” and Rowan stood up, “Would
you follow me.”

Ward watched them leave but avoided eye contact with
Pat.Once they were gone he focused back
on his food, mostly pushing it around with his fork.

“Not interested in getting started?” Pat’s voice was
low, reassuring as if trying to sooth a wild animal.

“No,” Ward paused, “I’m just not in a hurry to examine
and discuss the demons that were forced out of my subconscious with you.”

“Very good Ward,” Pat was impressed, really
impressed.His skills were farther
advanced than she had expected.The camp
observers were correct in picking out these two to be assessed first and moved
right into training.

“We have to be sure you can get past them before we
can start the training,” Ward still hadn’t looked up from his tray.

“Understood,” and he put his fork down.“Then shall we get started,” and he pushed
himself reluctantly away from the table, “Just so long as you remember those
ghost have been dead and buried for a long time now, and they have very little
power over me.”Ward couldn’t say he
liked or disliked Pat yet.She was very
business-like with him and if nothing else he appreciated that right now.No matter where this road would lead, it was
going to test him and his friends in many more ways, and he would face each
hurdle one step at a time.

Sunday, April 9, 2017

This story has inspired me to go back and write the story of Ward. Here's the next installment of this short story:

When they let him out of the room, a day later, he was
worse for the wear, but not broken. He
did smell bad and was in need of a good shower so he headed for the locker room
first. It didn’t surprise him to find
that both Jack and Bobby had headed for the locker room as well. All in all there were nine of them in the
showers stalls trying to rinse off the memories that this part of the training
had brought to the surface. Ward had to
wonder what had happened to the tenth man, but no one was talking. At any time he could have read the emotions
of anyone in this room, but he couldn’t, didn’t want to feel anyone else’s
emotions either. He found it wasn’t that
hard to block them out either. Maybe
that was one of the points of this exercise as well, to learn restraint.

Thirty minutes later they sat in silence at whatever
meal this was still fighting the demons they faced.Ward glanced at Bobby and saw that he was
recovering faster than either Jack or him.The lines on his face just weren’t as deep, his face not as drawn.He was really curious as to what demons Bobby
had and even more curious about the demons that Jack hadn’t shared with
him.He chanced opening up his mind to
get their feelings but the raw emotions in the room nearly physically knocked
him over. Jack looked over at Ward immediately as if he knew what he had
done.He then looked at the door.They were right on time.Jack didn’t know how he knew they would show
up now, he just did.

“Head’s up,” Jack kept his voice low as if that would
help at all. Pat and Rowan were mind
readers, good mind readers. He had
worked with Rowan before and had been amazed.
They were also trainers assigned to this group. Jack had done his research before he had
gotten here, after all he did have the clearance to find out, “The people
coming in are here to take us out separately for debriefing from the box.” Both Bobby and Ward looked over at the door
only to encounter Pat and Rowan staring right at them. It was unnerving and they looked away.

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Sorry they are so few and far between. It seems I am having a hard time redefining myself as a writer first and an educator second. The classroom still calls to me sometimes, but no more waiting the next installment is here. If you are enjoying this, please let me know with a quick comment.

“Hey, have some respect for the dead here,” Bobby
moaned from his bunk as he turned over and covered his head with his pillow.

“Sorry,” Ward had awakened ready for the day.He slid on a pair of shorts and a tee
shirt.He walked over to the door then
stopped, “Hey, come join us.I think
this has helped with the meditation routines.”

“And smell that hippy dippy stuff so early in the
morning,” and he snorted, “Not this man.”Ward chuckled and left.Bobby was
becoming a friend, a good friend, even though their backgrounds were polar
opposites.Bobby’s family was normal, if
there was such a thing, and they were higher up on the pay scale than most
people.He had volunteered for this unit
once they approached him because of love of Country.Ward had stumbled into this because he did
alone, and he did it well.Both signed
up to do good though, and both were A-types that had to be the best in their
field.

“Morning,” Ward said as he sat down.He took a deep cleansing breath and
exhaled.For the next five minutes they
sat in dead silence.Ward was getting
used to that with Jack and he was enjoying their talks.

“Today will test us,” were the first words Jack
said.Ward sat quietly, “People like us
have a lot of baggage that will break free today and haunt us, test us.”

“Okay,” Ward didn’t open his eyes, he just kept
breathing, “Why us more than others.”

“Our histories, our families.Similar in some ways, both tainted by
violence and pain,” at this Ward opened his eyes, “In any case people who don’t
mind never seeing their past again.”

“What did you say you did before this?”He knew he could trust Jack.Knew he was a good man, a friend.Maybe part of this training was also to build
friends, connections, people you trusted, and people that were closer than
family.

“CIA.Done
trainings like this before,” Jack took a deep breath, “Just remember that even
though we don’t have many if any connections to our past, it can still hurt
us.”Ward didn’t know how good that
advice was seven hours had past in the dark room.

“Damn it
Ward!I told you boy to clean that mess
out there!” he felt himself flung across the room and knocked nearly
unconscious.Ward could remember that day like it was right
now.He had meditated so long that the
craziness was now getting loose.Being
in this room and in the dark for so long was bringing up bad, no horrifying,
memories as Jack had promised. The
baseball bat repeatedly hit his father’s hand as he walked toward him.The man’s face was pure evil and he looked
happy to beat the crap out of him once again.As the bat reached it’s apex Ward put his hands up and waited for the
blow to hit.When the blow never
reached him he put his hands down understanding his hell that he had to go
through before he would get out of here.